Not all material found in books read has been used, for, of course, much does not belong in this classification. But when I have been in serious doubt, I have always included an item, and only after real consideration has any special treatment of narrative material been rejected.
For the purpose of deciding on inclusion or exclusion, I have had no hard and fast principle. Anything that goes to make up a traditional narrative has been used. When the term motif is employed, it is always in a very loose sense, and is made to include any of the elements of narrative structure. In general, any item in tales that other investigators have made notes on has been accepted. Sometimes, as in those treated in Chapter A, the events of creation, or the nature of the creator of of the gods, may be the subject of interest. Again, as in Chapter C, the index may involve incidents based on certain principles of conduct (e. g. tabu); sometimes extraordinary objects or creatures (magic or merely marvelous) may be the focus of attention. Most of the items are found worthy of note because of something out of the ordinary, something of sufficiently striking character to become a part of tradition, oral or literary. Commonplace experiences, such as eating and sleeping, are not traditional in this sense. But they may become so by having attached to them something remarkable or worthy of rememberihg. Mere eating is usually of no particular interest in a story. Eating on a magic table, food furnished by helpful animals, food that gives magic strength — these become significant and are likely to be handed down by the teller of tales.
Aside from the general principle just given, no rule has been followed in choosing what should go into the classification. I have tried to include all that becomes a part of tradition — all that is found worth retaining when tale, ballad, jest, or myth is transmitted by word of mouth or on the written page from generation to generation or from land to land.
PLAN OF THE WORK
This classification of materials is the result of a gradual evolution, not of any preconceived plan. It has grown out of an attempt to arrange conveniently a large number of notes made from widely divergent fields of narrative. Many groupings have been made and later combined, with others which are clearly related; many also have been split up into two or more headings. In the course of time there have emerged from this experimental process twenty-three divisions which have been finally retained.
(a) The chapters in the classification.
In a very general fashion the groups may be said to progress from the mythological and the supernatural toward the realistic and
